Here's a pretty silly explanation. On their homeworld, there's this war going on. A bomb is dropped which causes radiation to spread. Which causes people's cellular structure to weaken and cause their DNA to be unstable. But scientist finds a way to speed up evolution so people can adapt to this change. As a result, these people can shape-shift. It's a silly explanation. On the other hand, my Webcomic is suppose to be a comedy science fiction.

Here's a pretty silly explanation. On their homeworld, there's this war going on. A bomb is dropped which causes radiation to spread. Which causes people's cellular structure to weaken and cause their DNA to be unstable. But scientist finds a way to speed up evolution so people can adapt to this change. As a result, these people can shape-shift. It's a silly explanation. On the other hand, my Webcomic is suppose to be a comedy science fiction.

That explanation doesn't make any sense to me. What do you mean by "speed up evolution"? Are the people who've been affected by the radiation the ones shape-shifting, or is it their descendants?

If you're going to go with radiation, okay, but evolution doesn't seem to really tie in there. Real world evolution isn't Pokemon evolution, it's a change between generations and not a single organism. If you try to pass that in science fiction, you may frustrate and drive away people who understand what evolution is.

Maybe the scientists find a way to stabilize the people's DNA after the radiation, but the whole experience allows them to shape-shift afterward. You may not have to be too descriptive on what the scientists do to fix this problem, but connecting it to an unrelated process isn't the way to go._________________

Here's a pretty silly explanation. On their homeworld, there's this war going on. A bomb is dropped which causes radiation to spread. Which causes people's cellular structure to weaken and cause their DNA to be unstable. But scientist finds a way to speed up evolution so people can adapt to this change. As a result, these people can shape-shift. It's a silly explanation. On the other hand, my Webcomic is suppose to be a comedy science fiction.

That explanation doesn't make any sense to me. What do you mean by "speed up evolution"? Are the people who've been affected by the radiation the ones shape-shifting, or is it their descendants?

They've got this laboratory, see, with 10,000 human (shape-shifter) eggs waiting to be fertilized in vitro. They fertilize 100 with dna from 100 (shape-shifter) guys. Expose the 100 embryos to radiation, when 95 die take dna from the five survivors and mix with next 100 eggs. Repeat until you reach the last 100, the most successful radiation resisters, allow that batch to survive and mature to adults.

Here's a pretty silly explanation. On their homeworld, there's this war going on. A bomb is dropped which causes radiation to spread. Which causes people's cellular structure to weaken and cause their DNA to be unstable. But scientist finds a way to speed up evolution so people can adapt to this change. As a result, these people can shape-shift. It's a silly explanation. On the other hand, my Webcomic is suppose to be a comedy science fiction.

That explanation doesn't make any sense to me. What do you mean by "speed up evolution"? Are the people who've been affected by the radiation the ones shape-shifting, or is it their descendants?

They've got this laboratory, see, with 10,000 human (shape-shifter) eggs waiting to be fertilized in vitro. They fertilize 100 with dna from 100 (shape-shifter) guys. Expose the 100 embryos to radiation, when 95 die take dna from the five survivors and mix with next 100 eggs. Repeat until you reach the last 100, the most successful radiation resisters, allow that batch to survive and mature to adults.

I specifically asked about which generation was doing the shape-shifting, because Justinfh didn't clarify. I know it will work if the shape-shifters were born post-radiation, but it sounded like we were talking about the ones first affected by radiation._________________

Do you all remember the ad for "After Earth" where Will Smith is saying, in his deep Serious voice, that everything on earth had evolved to kill humans? Unless they cleared that concept up in the actual movie, that made no sense. That's a good example of just using the word because it sounds dramatic and heavy. The humans had left the planet however many years ago, so surely they're just evolving to fill whatever niche they can among the other critters and the environment. Any critter with an inclination to "kill humans" would get out-reproduced by those with the inclination to "cuddle humans."

Actually retroviruses similar to the ones used to treat certain cancers would probably work for ameliorating the mutation Justinth described, and on the first generation, not just succeeding ones.

That's fine. But "speeding up evolution" is incredibly unclear and doesn't necessarily point to that, which is why I asked for clarification. "Speeding up evolution" to me sounds like something completely different.

mcmasters wrote:

Do you all remember the ad for "After Earth" where Will Smith is saying, in his deep Serious voice, that everything on earth had evolved to kill humans? Unless they cleared that concept up in the actual movie, that made no sense. That's a good example of just using the word because it sounds dramatic and heavy. The humans had left the planet however many years ago, so surely they're just evolving to fill whatever niche they can among the other critters and the environment. Any critter with an inclination to "kill humans" would get out-reproduced by those with the inclination to "cuddle humans."

Eh, using words to sound dramatic and heavy when they're wrong drives me away. I hadn't heard about the movie, so I just looked up the trailer. Looks interesting, but that line does bug me; it's not the sort of thing that would keep me from seeing the movie, but I probably won't see it anyway. I'm not a movie person.

I think a big difference is a movie like this is going to have a lot more going for it than some sci-fi webcomic. Most people will overlook bad science for actors/actresses they like, story, and special effects. Building a webcomic on bad science gives you less to fall back on.

But hey, maybe Justinfh is only planning to mention it once and never bring it up again, so the whole thing doesn't matter that much; can't say. If it were something that Justinfh has to build a strong foundation on and is referenced often in the story, it would be more important to get it right.

It's my opinion that if you're looking to give a scientific explanation for something, have it be correct (as best as you can). You can be vague if you're making stuff up, and you don't have to get down to the nitty-gritty details, but referencing something incorrectly just isn't doing your homework._________________

Make it a running gag that every time there's about to be an explanation something interrupts it.

I second that idea.

Personally, the only way I can conceive of shape-shifting to be scientifically feasible are the following:

1) A body that is actually designed to change, ie, has special muscles and bones that could stretch a face out, can move joints back, perhaps even special bladders instead of bones so they can stretch, constrict, and reshape, and then become firm and appear to be bone.
The disadvantage of this is that it limits the forms that can be shape-shifted into. It works for a werewolf-type creature, but not a changeling.

2) Ultra-advanced nanotechnology rebuilds the person into any programmable shape.
The disadvantage with this is that you open a pandora's box of "why couldn't you just do this?" because if you have the technology to completely rebuild anything atom-by-atom that there are few situations you couldn't use that technology to save you from.

3) Odo/T-1000. A semi-liquid (probably organic) mass that can change its surface properties. Shape, tensile strength, color, etc. If you cut it in half you'll see its real form, the liquid-like center.
If it were really done right it wouldn't move quite like its form suggests, since doing something like walking is actually re-shaping itself.

4) Direct genetic manipulation with growth acceleration. I think a lot of sci-fis try to do this, but they keep ignoring many required aspects. First of all, it requires energy, and to incite a lot of cells within a body to re-grow themselves into a new form would require a year's worth of food. It could be conceivably mixed into a hyper-concentrated serum, but if you had that technology you can't have people starve to death. You also need to properly account for mass, whether a body is enlarging of shrinking, the pounds need to be accounted for.
And again, this technology opens a lot of doors of "If you have the technology to do this, then why can't you do this?" This technology eliminates all genetic diseases and disorders and even prompts genetic enhancements being available.

5) Psychic manipulation. Basically, convince people that someone has shape-sifted by altering their perception. Note that no actual shape-shifting has occurred.

Beyond any of that, there are no other ways I can think of to explain shape-shifting from a scientific perspective. You'd either have to rely on technology that is so far advanced that it can't be explained because it works on scientific principles yet unknown to us, or it would have to be magic._________________My webcomic: Mischief in Maytia
http://maytiacomic.com/

Just supporting what everyone said here! There's no reason that you have to explain it right when it pops up. If the ability to shapeshift comes as a revelation in the world and none of the characters quite know how that's possible, it's best to explain later when appropriate.

If it's a little more common of a power, but it's super complex, then likely you should reveal it sooner than later. But there's no reason to reveal then and there.

Here's a caveat: you as the author should know how shapeshifting is possible. Knowing how it's done lets you better hide it till it's right to reveal. That's all I can say since sci-fi isn't exactly my field of expertise. Yet.

On 3 (Liquid-metal/T-1000) you actually can make things move properly. If the liquid can adjust its cohesiveness and strength (which it would need in order to change shape), then it can do this selectively i.e. it can form dense cores (bones), and elastic contracting ligaments (muscles). So by mimicking the interior structure of things, it can mimick their movements.

Hmm, that's a good point.
The biggest issue I can see with the whole thing is complexity. The more complex something is, the harder it would be to mimic it, regardless of exactly how the mimicking is done. Starting with some sludge material that can change its properties makes it very hard to properly extend new shapes to begin with, and then adding internal structure just adds to the complexity.

It wouldn't be outright impossible, but you'd need the mental capacity (or the processing power) to grasp the complete musculature of a human while simultaneously holding a specific face. I suppose you could easily argue that retaining a shape requires almost no effort, and thus while shaping one could easily work to build the muscle and bone structure and then work on the outward appearance.

So yeah, I guess that could be done.
I just like the idea of these changelings having tell-tale signs in their movement that a trained eye can pick up; it potentially makes for some interesting stories._________________My webcomic: Mischief in Maytia
http://maytiacomic.com/

I don't think I'm gonna bother to give an explanation. I mean, in Doctor Who, a regeneration is explained by every cell in a Time Lord's body changing. That doesn't explain much. And basically, I'm turning my Webcomic into a science fantasy.